Ya know, it's ok that ANY race that imbraces itself i.e; black pride,brown pride,etc; I mean hell we even have national holidays celebrating the contributions made to society by people of color so far so good huh, but if white(caucasian)the very second you even began to proclaim your pride it never fails YOU WILL INCITE CRIES OF "YOUR A RACIST" or accused of being part of the KKK ( which speaking for myself, I have no use for them either). But I can see where some people get turned that direction, is the "White man" guilty of atrocities towards people of color in history past? ABSOLUTELY, especially towards the many Indians that early settlers encountered during the expansion & settlement of this country. But tribal warfare was taking place long before any white europeans stepped foot on the north american continent,where is all this going? hell I don't know, I guess it kinda pisses me off that this expression of "being done wrong" by hispanics and their thinking of having their land stolen from them ( which of course is historically not the case, we/they had a war and they lost,it could of just as easily been the other way around) But the refusal to assimilate and culturaly adjust & thinking they're owed is just ridiculess . Are they even remotely aware of what the mass immigration that took place during 1800's early 1900's. Ellis Island in New York your immigrants were the Irish,Germans,Italians, Russians etc; Do they think it was easy for them because they had fair skin? It was a hell of alot harder than these modern day cry babies have it. There were no welcome wagons with social programs in their own language I'll add to help them adjust socially or culturally ASSIMILATE or DISENEGRATE was the tone of the times. Personally I feel that I AM AN NATIVE AMERICAN, I was concieved in the U.S. I was born here in the U.S. doesn't that make any sense to anyone besides me. I always thought it would be a cold day in hell when our own gorvernment would risk our sovernity and our identity as America & as Americans, but it seems as far as this goes the days are getting colder... just a thought

Great, found a place to vent a little. I live where there are so many illegals it's insane. I feel very out numbered in my own city, when I go to the store nobody speaks English. Where the hell am I??? They may be cheap, hard workers but they do really poor, low quality work, infact I don't think they have a word for quality. We had to have a vinyl (binyl) floor replaced. The 2 non-English speaking men they sent did such a horrible job the company had to pay and redo the flooring. Guess who they sent to replace it...you got it the same guys. They destroyed my quarter molding, glue is all over my wood work, missed a cut and put a 2 inch cut out from the wood work. Horrible work. No wonder they have such a poor life in Mexico they take no pride in what they do. They don't care about America, they don't care about being legal, they plan to make money, pay no taxes and book back to Mexico when they are done. I am sick of having to select a frickin language, I don't think they should have the option. Maybe if we wouldn't coddle them so much they would HAVE to use OUR language. In a city near by it's Mandatory that the students now take spanish. They send their children to school here and they can't speak or understand English. They are all on free lunches but have cash to buy all the snacks they want. (Worked with a public school teacher, got this right from the source). They do not respect us and I wish they would get the hell out of here and GO HOME!

I live in Texas and some of the schools here are making it mandatory that teachers and Principles learn spanish so that they can communicate with the students and parents. It's outrageous!! There are so many good teachers that I know that are now out of a job cause they didn't know spanish and they can't come back UNTIL they do!

It's funny, when my mother came to the US at the age of 8, they didn't have ESL, etc... She just figured out the language pretty quick. Sometimes the sink or swim method works. My friend decided she was moving to Holland at the age of 20. She didn't know a word of Dutch. She's been there six years now and is quite fluent in Dutch. There was no coddling and "press 1", etc... for her either. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! StephPage

Now see.. THAT I can understand. If you're going to live in a foreign land then learn their language so that you can effectively communicate with them. It doesn't mean give up your whole identity but that you are assimilating yourself into their culture. But the illegals that are streaming across the border isn't doing any such thing.

I should stop here before I get on a rant. Sorry I was just turned away from a job cause I wasn't bilingual. What job was it? A Maid service to clean homes, businesses, etc. Why in the world should I need to know spanish just to clean? I didn't know it mattered or affected how I did my job. OYE! Sorry I wasn't going to rant here...was going to save it for R-n-R.

This is a great topic. I love it. I donít live anywhere near the border; however we deal with illegal aliens up here everyday. They work under the table and pay no taxes. There are crooked contractors who use illegal laborers to save a few bucks. I hear people all the time saying legalize them so they can pay taxes. What the hell does making them legal have to do with paying taxes? They still are going to work the under the table job. They are still going to send money back to mom and dad down in Mexico. There is a town about 75 miles south of here called Woodburn, Oregon. Look it up. In every store, school, gas station, and soon to be road sign Iím sure, has to be written in Spanish and English. This is ridiculous. I have a friend who works for the Woodburn School district. They have a hidden agenda to make the Woodburn School District the first Spanish speaking school in the state. 80 percent of the students are Mexican, and most of the staff Mexican. If you drive through the town of Woodburn see what I am talking about. There are Mexican gang banger punks on every corner selling drugs. The police in that town are scared of them. They bring pounds of methamphetamines up here weekly. When they get in trouble for it, they spend a day or two in jail then get a free ride back to Mexico. I donít see why they wouldnít want to be drug runnersÖ Go visit my myspace page if you get a chance. This is a link. Myspace Link